1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical card recording/reproducing apparatus which records or reproduces data by use of an optical card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an optical card recording/reproducing apparatus, an optical card serving as a recording medium and an optical head are relatively moved, and data recording or reproducing is performed.
If the optical card is completely inserted into a card holding section, a recording/reproducing beam is radiated to the optical card from the optical head, and a focus search for searching a focal point of the beam to the optical card is started.
In general, in the optical card recording/reproducing apparatus, it has been known that there occurs an error in a relative distance between the optical head and the optical card due to a mechanical attaching error of the optical head and the card holding section and a curvature of the optical card itself. Therefore, the search range of the focus search is set to compensate for the error range of the relative distance between the optical head and the optical card.
However, in the conventional focus search method, since a position on the card where the focus search is to be performed is not specified, the range of the focus search extends due to the error of the curvature of the card. Because of this, there is disadvantage in that the focus searching time is increased. Particularly, in the optical card recording/reproducing apparatus, since the access of the card is repeated many times when the card is used, increase in focus searching time resulted in increase in waiting time of the card user, that is, from the time when the card is inserted till the time when the recording/reproducing can be performed.